Nicolas Flamel (French: [nikɔla flamɛl]; c. 1330 – 22 March 1418)[1] was a French scribe and manuscript-seller. After his death, Flamel developed a reputation as an alchemist believed to have discovered the philosopher's stone and to have thereby achieved immortality. These legendary accounts first appeared in the 17th century.

According to texts ascribed to Flamel almost 200 years after his death, he had learned alchemical secrets from a Jewish converso on the road to Santiago de Compostela. He has since appeared as a legendary alchemist in various fictional works.

The historical Flamel lived in Paris in the 14th and 15th centuries, and his life is one of the best documented in the history of medieval alchemy.[2] He ran two shops as a scribe and married Perenelle in 1368. She brought the wealth of two previous husbands to the marriage. The French Catholic couple owned several properties and contributed financially to churches, sometimes by commissioning sculptures.[3] Later in life, they were noted for their wealth and philanthropy.

Flamel lived into his 70s, and in 1410 designed his own tombstone, which was carved with the images of Christ, St. Peter, and St. Paul. The tombstone is preserved at the Musée de Cluny in Paris. Records show that Flamel died in 1418.[4] He was buried in Paris at the end of the nave of the former Church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie.[5] His will, dated 22 November 1416, indicates that he was generous but that he did not have the extraordinary wealth of later alchemical legend. There is no indication that the real Flamel of history was involved in alchemy, pharmacy or medicine.[2]

Bibliography (in progress)

Dixon, Laurinda, ed. Nicolas Flamel : His Exposition of the Hieroglyphicall Figures (1624). Milton: Routledge, 2019.

Dobbs, B. J. T. The Janus Faces of Genius: The Role of Alchemy in Newton’s Thought. 

Cambridge UP, 1991.

Dry, Sarah. The Newton Papers: The Strange and True Odyssey of Isaac Newton’s Manuscripts.     Oxford UP, 2014. 

-- -- --. The Foundations of Newton’s Alchemy: or, The Hunting of the Greene Lyon. 

Flamel was a real person, and he may have dabbled in alchemy, but his reputation as an author and immortal adept must be accepted as an invention of the seventeenth century.[2]